State v. Damask

ROBERTSON, Judge.

The question we decide is whether drug enforcement traffic checkpoints operated by law enforcement officials in Franklin and Texas Counties are constitutional under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, section 15 of the Missouri Constitution. Because the checkpoints were operated in a nondiscriminatory fashion as to the initial stops and because the checkpoints effectively advance an important state interest with minimal intrusion to motorists, we find such checkpoints constitutional. The trial courts’ decisions to suppress the evidence…